


No longer the good son

by redshadowalchemist



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Awesome Bobby Singer, Bobby Singer is So Done, Good Older Sibling Michael (Supernatural), Good Person Raphael (Supernatural), M/M, Michael Falls and Becomes Dean Winchester, Sort Of, he makes Mistakes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-26 13:40:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30106824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redshadowalchemist/pseuds/redshadowalchemist
Summary: Michael is done being the good son, this time he thinks he'll try being a good brother instead. Getting into Cas' pants would be nice too, but that is secondary to stopping the apocalypse and protecting his brothers, all his brother's angel or human.Dean/Michael is having an identity crisis, Cas is having a romantic crisis, Raphael is having a moral crisis, Gabriel and Sam both want to know where they fit in this weird new family and Lucifer is confused.And Bobby wonders when his job switched from "hunter" to "angelic therapist". Though given his chosen therapy method includes ingesting copious amounts of alcohol its probably for the best his "clients" can't get alcohol poisoning.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Castiel/Michael (Supernatural), Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Gabriel & Lucifer & Michael & Raphael (Supernatural)
Kudos: 21





	1. Grace

**Author's Note:**

> I've seen a few of these Michael fell and became Dean Winchester fics so I didn't come up with the idea. I couldn't get it out of my head though, hopefully this is original enough to be interesting to some people.
> 
> AU after Dean takes Castiel to the strip club in season 5 episode 3. I've not seen past season 12 properly (a few later episodes here and there but not in sequence) and I will be largely ignoring canon after episode 3. I'm aware Michael appears in more recent seasons of supernatural but I'm ignoring that for this fic.
> 
> I have two different Fullmetal alchemist AUs and a Harry Potter fic I should be finishing but I just had to start this instead, naughty redshadow (slaps wrist).

Then first thing Dean saw when he opened the door was sparks of electricity flying in a very not safe looking way, in every direction as a dark skinned man the third eldest archangel was using as a vessel materialized in the center of the room, he radiated power.

"Castiel" he spoke, his voice gravelly like the rebellious younger angel’s had been when Dean first met him and didn’t that feel like an age ago? So much had happened since then. 

"Raphael" Castiel responded with understandable hostility. OK it was an angel dick messaging contest then, and Dean, a competent fighter and experienced hunter but still just a human had got himself in the middle of it. Great, Dean Winchester, expert at making good life choices. 

"I thought you were supposed to be impressive all you do is black out the room?" Dean taunted falling into his standard bravado when he knew he was way outgunned but was still going ahead anyway, before following Castiel further into the room.

"And the Eastern seaboard" Raphael responded, well that didn't sound like he was showing off at all, when Dean had first met Cas he had knocked out the lights but he had never done it since, appearing silently and immediately at the most inopportune times but if Cas was capable of doing so without destroying all the lighting in whatever building they were in Raphael should be able to too. Which meant he was showing off. "It is a testament to my unending mercy that I don't smite you here and now"

"Or maybe you're full of crap. Maybe your afraid that God'll bring Cas back to life again and smite you... you candy ass skirt" Dean interrupted Raphael's typical bad guy monologue with whatever bad insult first came to mind. He wasn’t too proud of that one but it served its purpose in distracting the archangel "by the way Hi I'm Dean" he added with mock friendliness and a little wave.

"I know who you are. And now thanks to him I know where you are" there was something awfully familiar about Raphael but also something very wrong when he fixed his eyes on Dean. He didn't look triumphant, he looked like he was in pain. His face remained blank, Dean should not have known that but he could tell somehow that Raphael was in pain. 

"You won't kill him" Castiel interrupted Dean’s thoughts "you wouldn't dare”.

"No" Raphael said shaking his head, “I won’t kill him, just deliver Michael." Deliver Michael, that doesn't sound right. Shouldn't it be, deliver Dean to Michael? Not that Dean was keen on that either. If Michael coming to earth was going to turn out like Cas’ attempt at interaction without a vessel, well Michael was a lot more powerful presumably it would be a lot worse.

"Well that sounds terrifying but I hate to tell you I'm not going anywhere with you" Dean said helping himself to some booze straight out of the bottle. He did half expect Michael to appear any second now, even if the experience would probably blind Dean. Or maybe Raphael would see through their trap, the alcohol steadied his nerves anyway and if he was about to be kidnapped or disintegrated by an angel he deserved one last drink.

"Surely you remember Zachariah giving you stomach cancer?" Raphael interjects.

"Yeah, that was hilarious" Dean said with a tight smile.

"He doesn't have anything close to my imagination” Raphael promised darkly.

"You've forgotten one thing" Dean said.

"What's that?"

"We knew you were coming you stupid son of a bitch" and he dropped the lighter and the holy oil caught alight spreading quickly and trapping the archangel in a ring of holy fire.

Raphael's stony face showed only momentary surprise and he watched them cooly, Dean felt vaguely guilty at the look on the archangels face for reasons he didn't quite understand. Raphael...that familiar feeling was not going away.

"Don't look at me it was his idea" he said glancing at Cas who glared back at him indignant at being thrown under the bus.

"Where is he?" Cas demanded.

"God?" Raphael asked rhetorically "didn't you hear? He's dead Castiel. He's dead, there's no other explanation, he's gone for good."

"You’re lying" Cas retorts.

"Am I? Do you remember the 20th century? Do you think the 21st is going any better? You think God would have let any of that happen if he were alive?"

"Oh? Then who invented the Chinese basket trick?" Dean joked trying and failing to break the tension.

"That's my father your talking about”

"Your father who would be so proud to learn his sons started the apocalypse” Dean argued. 

"Who disappeared, who up and left and left no instructions and a world to run."

"So Daddy ran away and left you, he didn't happen to work for the post office did he?" Dean said glancing at Cas hoping the angel got the joke, Castiel seemed to understand but didn't look impressed.

"This is funny to you? You're living in a godless universe."

"So you and the other kids just decided to throw an apocalypse while he's gone."

"We're tired" Raphael said his voice almost breaking "we just want it to be over, we just want paradise. Michael..." his voice broke "it wasn't supposed to take this long, you were supposed to say yes." 

"Sorry not happening” Dean said with fake flippancy. 

"I realize that now" Raphael said, "he said I had to wait, for you to consent, but I'm done. I want my brother back."

"I'm not preventing your brother from existing, just from coming down to earth. Stay in heaven if you want to see him. Go on a road trip, I don’t care. Just don’t try and bring your family squabbles down to earth.”

"But Michael isn't in heaven" Raphael answered, "he hasn't been in heaven for oh...three decades now.”

He took out a glass vial, Dean wasn’t sure where he was hiding that, it could have been in the vessel’s pocket but it didn’t look like he took it out of a pocket it was more like one moment it suddenly materialized into his hands. The vial was bright, so bright it hurt to look directly at it, it was like trying to look directly at the sun.

“What is that?” Dean asked.

“Grace” Castiel said.

Dean had seen Anna's grace in the brief moment between it's release and Anna swallowing it, this was much brighter, and much bigger too “But… Anna’s grace looked nothing like that.”

“Anna was a malakhim, a mid ranking angel. She was powerful by human standards but… whose is that?” Cas asked the last part of the question to Raphael, dread creeping into his vessel’s voice.

"This?" Raphael asked almost mockingly "It's Michael's grace."

"Michael's grace? So where's Michael?" Dean asked, if Michael could become human, why did he need him?

"On Earth, where has been for the past thirty one years. Not exactly where we expected him to be. He can't remember being an archangel after all. Not until he gets this back. He thinks he’s human.”

"No" Castiel said in a strangled tone looking from Dean to Raphael and back again a look of true horror on his face.

"Cas?" Dean worried he admitted he was lost but Cas had clearly realized something.

"He cut out his grace" Cas whispered staring at Raphael wide eyed, "became human...thirty one years ago. You were waiting for Dean to say yes...but Michael isn't around to say yes to which means..."

"You better run while you can Castiel" Raphael said smugly.

"He can't hurt you Cas he's in holy fire and Michael can't hurt you...not if doucheangel here has his grace" Dean says. He hates feeling like he’s missing something but from the way he sees it neither archangel can do anything at the moment.

"Dean" Castiel says looking at him he looks shattered, truly broken. Dean has seen Castiel defeated before but not like this. It’s like the light behind his eyes has gone out. 

"It went wrong you see" Raphael said "Michael's grand plan. He had it all worked out. You were supposed to have said yes by now. You weren't supposed to be so....like he used to be, like he was before Lucifer betrayed us."

Raphael dropped the vial and it shattered. 

That was the last thing Dean knew before his entire being was on fire.


	2. Michael

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael is confronted with two younger brothers who took very different paths. Who he doesn't want to hurt anymore. He flees to the one father figure who never let him down. Bobby Singer, for advice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heylel is another name for Lucifer.

1978

It had been Castiel who had informed the eldest archangel of Anna's betrayal of the cause, of how she seemed to have gone rogue on earth. Castiel who had once been her second in command knew her grace better than most. It did not seem to be their Anna, rather a future version but time is not so linear for angels as it is for humans, though time travel requires permission, and Michael knows Anna didn’t have it, he’s the one who gives the permission after all. 

Michael had sent Castiel away, knowing the lesser angel's history with Anna and his own tendency towards doubt and questioning. Michael was loathe to expose Castiel to Anna's blasphemy. Castiel had his flaws, as did they all (angels were not as perfect as they would like to believe), but Michael had always had an irrational soft spot for this particular little brother, this naive, well meaning but also somewhat strange, and definitely disobedient little brother.

It may seem foolish for Michael to become fond of another disobedient little brother after what had happened to the last disobedient little brother he had loved but Castiel, unlike Lucifer was always kind, if a bit too fond of humanity and least there was no pride or personal ambition in him.

So to avoid sending Castiel, and to avoid causing too much disturbance in heaven, which he ruled with Raphael as his second command he went himself. He whispered in John Winchester's ears.

"Let me help, he whispers, say yes to me and I can save your wife, save your unborn child."

John Winchester is a lot more cooperative than his sons will prove to be, but Michael will not have to experience that particular brand of Winchester disobedience for another 31 years.

Then he lays his hands on Mary Winchester and is horrified to find instead of the soul of her future child he feels....nothing. The child is not dead, a dead child could easily be resurrected by one as powerful as Michael is. There is simply...no soul.

No soul, while a human could technically function with no soul (though the circumstances by which a human could loose their soul and still live were so specific and so many things would have to line up it was highly unlikely it would ever happen), in a child it would simply relate in a stillbirth.

No soul, yet a fully grown, healthy, adult Dean Winchester stands in front of him.

Except it isn't Dean Winchester in front of him, not really. Not when Michael looks closely. It's him. A human version of him without his memories.

Michael is a not just a soldier, he is a general and as a general he is used to reworking strategies based on last minute changes.

Mary Winchester's unborn child is to be his vessel but the child has no soul, will not survive the birth, but he needs that body, the only body who could sufficiently contain his power long enough. Heaven has been invested in this too long, combining the right bloodlines, to make Dean and Sam Winchester the vessels. To end everything.

An angel, even an archangel needs permission to possess a vessel but that would not apply to an unborn child.

Clearly his future self had already come to the conclusion the only way to get the vessel, Dean Winchester was to BE Dean Winchester.

He remembered everything now.

2010

For the first time in 31 years, the archangel Michael opened his eyes.

The first thing he sees Cas....Castiel he corrects mentally, standing in the corner looking so broken, and the state of his wings, they were drooping, injured, feathers were missing. He was completely open to attack, any competent angel and maybe even a high powered demon or clever monster who knew where to aim could rip through him in seconds exposed as he was. He looked so vulnerable like he had given up and he was waiting for death. A condemned prisoner waiting for the axe to fall.

"Come here Castiel" Michael says his voice more commanding than Dean's had been, it feels wrong after so long as Dean Winchester. 31 years should be nothing for an angel but as a human… it had been a lifetime and felt it. Castiel hesitates. He obeys the command but he seems to be steeling himself for attack and Michael puts a hand on his shoulder, it hurts when Castiel winces away from him. Cas who was Dean’s friend...more than that but Michael resolutely refuses to think about what happened after they went to the strip club last night. Castiel was also disobedient and helped ruin the archangel’s plans, though he wasn't so sure about his plans anymore. 

Michael was having a bit of an identity and moral crisis but that would have to wait, he couldn't be like that when Castiel was so vulnerable so Michael infuses his own grace in Castiel's wings until they were healed completely, bringing him back into the host. Only an archangel has the power to do that, to bring back a falling angel. He does it without really thinking just instinctively wanting to protect Castiel.

Then he turns to Raphael, who is still trapped in holy fire. The room looks like a bomb site, Raphael had set off a huge storm when he appeared but the rest, the blown out windows raining glass on everything, they are definitely not getting their deposit back.

"Michael" Raphael's voice cracks in relief, Michael blows away the holy fire surrounding the younger archangel as if it was nothing more than candles on a child’s birthday cake and then he embraces him tightly, his little brother, he has had to be him for that last 30 years, Michael isn't sure he'd wish that on anyone...maybe Lucifer if he was being particularly annoying he didn’t hate Lucifer, not really but perhaps it would do him good to see Michael’s point of view. Not that Michael’s decision making ability was anything to write home about given he’d been maneuvering things to set up the apocalypse for a long time now.

"Raphael I'm so sorry" he whispers. Raphael has been alone, shouldering the burden of command for 30 years. He is not made for command this brother, he was a healer, a teacher, made to protect and nurture. Michael had mocked him 31 years ago when he had cut out his grace and Raphael begged him not to leave him alone, not to make him watch Michael suffer, to make him the enforcer.

Then he pulls away from the third eldest archangel "I need to think.”

“Wait, where are you going?” Raphael frowned.

“I’ll meet you back in heaven later. We’ll talk then. Cas…tiel stay here I’ll come back later” he said tripping over the endearment Dean had used. 

Michael was confused, he needs advice, but he dare not go to any of his brothers. Sam made his feelings clear and Michael was directly responsible for a huge chunk of his current problems he has no right to demand his attention and aid. The angels will all obey him but that isn’t what he needs now. He needs someone intelligent but impartial who wouldn't be afraid of him just because he was an archangel and who will give actual good advice.

Michael’s father is gone. Dean’s biological father is gone. But there is someone else Dean saw as a father…

__________

Bobby Singer was dropping off to sleep. He had been up late researching and drinking… which was normal for him but the amount of research and the stakes had exponentially increased recently. He is trying to read but his eyes keep closing.

"Bobby" Bobby Singer is definitely awake now. That was Dean’s voice but… not. Slightly deeper with an edge Dean’s voice didn’t have unless he was angry. Dean appeared to be in front of him but the door was locked, and Dean would have knocked knowing how paranoid Bobby was. This figure had just appeared in the middle of his living room.

"I screwed up Bobby" not-Dean said, "screwed up more than I ever thought possible. And I need some advice from someone I respect."

Even confined to a chair Bobby Singer, paranoid bastard extraordinary is prepared and reaches for a flask of holy water he keeps concealed and throw it at not-Dean.

The expression on not-Dean’s face is so Dean at that moment “what the hell Bobby?”

"You are not Dean" Bobby said. 

Not-Dean picks up a silver knife and cuts himself “not a demon, not a monster either. Not exactly Dean but not exactly not Dean either… look do you remember Anna?”

“The angel that turned human? Why?” Bobby feels a chill, Dean hadn’t come in through the door “oh balls”

“That's what I did. I had this whole plan but a wrench was thrown in my plan when Mary Winchester had a miscarriage in 1978, so instead of my true vessel I knew if my plans were going to work, and Dean Winchester wasn't an option. I had to become Dean Winchester, so I cut out my grace...left it with Raphael and lost all memory of ever being something more than human. I was supposed to say yes, at which point Raphael would return my grace but...well....as Dean I was a lot more like myself than I imagined" he smiles darkly "I was always stubborn and before Heylel fell, before father left...that me had hope and fire” it all came out in a garbled mess and Dean/Michael sounded seriously freaked out. The word Heylel is what Bobby zeros in on, Lucifer’s original name used so easily in a way few beings would.

“Michael?” Bobby asks fearful of confirming his theory. 

“Yeah. The archangel Michael that’s me” not-Dean said with a bitter laugh.

“You said you screwed up when you came in. What did you screw up? It sounds like with a minor delay your plan worked pretty well. Not for humanity but for you.”

“The plan was wrong” Dean/Michael shouts angrily and the lights all explode leaving them in the dark.

“Sorry, I’m out of practice” he says sounding like Dean again. He snapped his fingers and everything went back to normal and the lights are back on shattered glass repairing as quickly as it broke “the plan was wrong” Dean continued calmer this time “I was wrong.”

"Dean...Michael...what do I call you now?" he is unsure and more than a little afraid of the implications of this. 

"Dean's fine I guess for you anyway."

"Dean...do you want the apocalypse?"

"I don't think so" Dean/Michael "I'd been in heaven so long I'd forgotten, what I was fighting for when I fought my brother, when I threw him in the cage. It wasn't about who was better, not for me. I didn't want to fight my brother I wanted to protect everyone. Him too, that's why I didn't kill him I was supposed to kill him instead I threw him in the cage. I don't know if there is anything I can do for Heylel, but he's not having Sammy either."

Bobby hits him over the head with the heaviest book within reach. He may be killed for that but it probably won’t hurt him and sometimes words won’t get the point across. 

"Ouch" Dean/Michael complains. 

"You’re supposed to be near invincible don't tell me your weakness is books?" Bobby asks with biting sarcasm.

"No, it doesn’t really… that was an instinctive response” he admits “it is more than a little jarring I literally got my memories back an hour ago. I fixed Castiel, sent Raphael back to heaven and flew around the globe a few times to clear my head. In a way I think being human was good for me. Dean is… was… not sure which tense to use, a blank slate but he was still me in essence. Dean Winchester was exactly like I was… millenia ago. I didn’t realize how much I had changed. I lost my brothers, Lucifer first then Gabriel ran away and I was alone. I had Raphael but he always let me walk all over him, I treated him badly. The younger ones too… and Castiel… I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me. I didn’t realize how much I’d lost sight of what was really important. I was wrong. I get that you’re probably never going to forgive me for this either but will you at least help me figure out what to do next?”

“Do you even care if I’m angry?” Bobby couldn’t fathom the first angel ever caring about his personal opinion. Even if he seemed to have retained his attachment to Sam. And where was Sam?

“Of course I do. Dean wasn’t a construct. He was me without my power or memories, his decisions were mine untainted by aeons of fury and loneliness and regret. I still care about the people I cared about before I got my grace back. You, Sam… Cas.”

“Where is Sam?” he didn’t think Michael had hurt Sam given what he just said but the younger hunter had to be somewhere and he wasn’t with his brother… was he even still his brother if Dean was an angel?

“He left. We had a fight.”

“Because you’re Michael?” Bobby asked he hoped neither brother had done anything rash.

“He doesn’t know it was before that he left. And when I realized well he’s already fucked up because he thinks he started the apocalypse how is he going to feel when he finds out it was my idea? He wants out I have no right to pull him back in but I will have to… Heylel will want him. And I can protect him but only if I’m around.”

“Why would Lucifer want Sam?” Bobby is even more concerned now, Sam opened the cage what other plans do hell have for him? Dean had already implied Sam was in danger. 

“Because he’s Lucifer’s vessel.”

“Can you kill Lucifer?”

“I’m not killing my little brother” Dean/Michael said angrily fire in his eyes for a moment. Yes that was Dean. The lights go out again and he sighs and fixes them again. 

“And how do you plan on dealing with the fact that Michael’s little brother is after Dean’s little brother?” Bobby asked. He would prioritize Sam over Lucifer any day but he doesn’t know if Michael/Dean will having known Lucifer far longer.

“If I have to… he goes back in the cage” he decided “I won’t let him have Sammy. If locking him back up is the only way to stop him I’ll do it” he sounds reluctant. 

“But you don’t want to?” which is another nightmare, he knows what Dean was like when it came to Sam. Is Michael going to treat Lucifer the same way? Forgiving, not caring about the destruction or hurt. Bobby is guilty of that too when it comes to Sam but Sam isn’t evil.

“What I want is peace in my family, all my brothers back and safe and not trying to kill each other. I want to fix Raphael who I have broken in my selfishness, I want to find Gabriel who fled, I want Lucifer back and I want Sammy safe and happy and I want Cas… well I want him to be happy. I doubt I will get all of it but I might be able to get some of it.”

“I’m guessing you can’t just call off the apocalypse? Too late I suppose?”

“The angels will obey me. The only one who even comes close to me is Raphael and he is both loyal and not a fighter in nature. But Heylel is already loose. I can refuse to fight him but he’ll just keep on destroying things. He has to be stopped.”

“So basically you want a way to stop the apocalypse without killing Lucifer, destroying the earth and a magic fix it to get rid of all the demons too?”

“Yes please.”

“Do you want me to do cartwheels and shoot rainbows out of my ass while I’m at it?”

“Yeah I know I’m dumping a lot on you” he sighed.

“Can you at least fix up my legs?” Bobby asked, Cas could have done it with his angel juice and Michael was a lot stronger. It would cost an archangel nothing in power surely its the least Dean owes him.

“I have the power but it wouldn’t be a good idea. I have never been a healer and even before I was human I hadn’t healed in millenia. It’s likely I’d put too much power into it and disintegrate you down to the atoms. If Raphael is still talking to me when I reverse everything I made him suffer for I will get him to fix you. He is the archangel of healing after all. If Raff” Michael sighs and closes his eyes “if Raff can’t forgive me. I’m sure I can find someone to do it. I just… can’t risk laying hands on you myself and hurting you.”

“Having seen what you keep doing to the lights… yeah you better not touch me” Bobby said he’d rather wait a bit longer and not disintegrate “can you not control that? Cas doesn’t do that?”

“I’m out of practice” he says sounding embarrassed “it’s never been like that before.”

“I bet you tell that to all the girls” Bobby says before he wonders if an archangel will appreciate the crude joke but Dean/Michael smiles. 

“Seriously though, when hunters call you about the freak power cuts and electrical storms… do try to calm them down. I fixed it and I’ll try not to do it again.”

“The lights are shooting out more widely than my house?” Bobby asks, if Michael and Lucifer fighting could destroy the world… what could he do by mistake? Presumably nothing good.

“Raphael can knock out the Eastern seaboard. I can knock out the whole continent. I’ve been fixing it every time but yeah that will attract attention.”

Their eyes meet and there is an awkward silence for a minute before Bobby has to ask.

"What were you thinking you Idjit, starting the apocalypse?"

"I was tired, we were all tired, father was gone, he left no instructions. I held things together best I good simply by virtue of having the most power, but he was gone and we didn't know what to do. I thought, maybe if he didn't want this...he'd come back. And if he didn't well it would be over anyway. But human me was stubborn and human me was right. I can't do this to a whole planet of living beings just because I'm tired. It isn't fair. And seeing my brothers, Raphael and Castiel both so broken. I did that to them. One I destroyed as an angel, the other as a human but its my fault and I have to fix them...Sam too...since technically I started the apocalypse not him."

"Alright" Bobby said because what else can he say to that. Unconditional love is what a parent should give their children, he always saw himself as a father figure for Dean and Sam and if he could forgive Sam for starting the apocalypse he guessed he could forgive Dean too. 

"Alright?" Dean/Michael asked.

"Let's start at the begging and think this through logically but first, and most importantly though St Michael the archangel can make me a coffee.”

“I can do that” Dean/Michael said caught slightly off guard by the request.

“And put whiskey in it” Bobby said “I need a good stiff drink.”


End file.
